Monday, May 09, 2005
Right wing racial profiling?
Janice Rogers Brown of the California Supreme Court has been the Bush nominee for a federal circuit court judgeship facing particularly fierce resistance by Democrats and their allies. For example, the April 26 "Action Alert" from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People accuses her of "having extreme right-wing views," issuing "many opinions hostile to civil rights."
I do not agree with all of Justice Brown's opinions, but I write this to show how prejudicially selective the prosecution of her is by the Democrats, the NAACP, People for the American Way and her other critics. She was filibustered in the last Congress, and may be again, now having been sent to the floor on a 10-to-8 party-line vote by the Judiciary Committee.
To my knowledge, not one of her attackers has mentioned the fact that in the case of People v. McKay (2002), Brown was the only California Supreme Court justice to instruct her colleagues on the different standards some police use when they search cars whose drivers are black:
"There is an undeniable correlation between law enforcement stop-and-search practices and the racial characteristics of the driver. ... The practice is so prevalent, it has a name: 'Driving While Black.'"
The three-page "Action Alert" I received from the NAACP ignored that opinion, in which Brown added that while racial-profiling is "more subtle, more diffuse and less visible" than racial segregation, "it is only a difference of degree. If harm is still being done to people because they are black, or brown, or poor, the oppression is not lessened by the absence of television cameras."
I do not agree with all of Justice Brown's opinions, but I write this to show how prejudicially selective the prosecution of her is by the Democrats, the NAACP, People for the American Way and her other critics. She was filibustered in the last Congress, and may be again, now having been sent to the floor on a 10-to-8 party-line vote by the Judiciary Committee.
To my knowledge, not one of her attackers has mentioned the fact that in the case of People v. McKay (2002), Brown was the only California Supreme Court justice to instruct her colleagues on the different standards some police use when they search cars whose drivers are black:
"There is an undeniable correlation between law enforcement stop-and-search practices and the racial characteristics of the driver. ... The practice is so prevalent, it has a name: 'Driving While Black.'"
The three-page "Action Alert" I received from the NAACP ignored that opinion, in which Brown added that while racial-profiling is "more subtle, more diffuse and less visible" than racial segregation, "it is only a difference of degree. If harm is still being done to people because they are black, or brown, or poor, the oppression is not lessened by the absence of television cameras."
